A number of games and gaming apparatuses and methods exist in the prior art. Various games of skill or chance are used in casinos and gambling halls. Some of these games of skill or chance involve playing card games, dice games, roulette wheels, etc. Other games of skill or chance involve lottery tickets in which a person purchases a lottery ticket in hoping that he/she will win an instant amount or a jackpot amount.
Lottery tickets contain either instant win/jackpot games or progressive jackpot games. In the instant win/jackpot games, the player purchases an instant lottery ticket and plays the game on the instant lottery ticket. The player at that time knows whether he/she is a winner and knows how much he/she has won. For progressive jackpot lottery games, the player purchases the progressive lottery ticket for a particular draw time and date and then waits until that time and date of the draw when the numbers are picked. After the draw for the progressive lottery jackpot game, the player knows whether he/she is a winner and knows how much he/she has won. Instant lottery games are played separately from the jackpot play type jackpots, that is, instant tickets lottery are sold entirely separately from progressive lottery tickets. Therefore, the player either is playing for the typically fixed, smaller amount wins if he/she is playing the instant lottery games, and the player is playing for the larger, progressive amount wins if he/she is playing the progressive lottery games.
Lottery ticket games that combine both instant win/jackpot games and progressive jackpot games on single tickets have been developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,158,293 to Mullins ("Mullins") discloses an example of such a combination lottery ticket and game. This prior art patent is incorporated by reference herein. Mullins discloses the combination of an instant play type lottery game with a jackpot type lottery game. The instant type lottery game may be any of one instant type lottery game. The progressive lottery jackpot game is one that the player has a ticket that has a series of numbers from a field of numbers from which the winning numbers will be drawn. The winning numbers are selected at random on a specified drawing date for that ticket. On the specified date, the winning numbers are drawn from the field of numbers. Any ticket with the winning numbers is a winning ticket, and the holder of a winning ticket is entitled to at least a share or all of the jackpot.
One drawback for the players of the progressive lottery jackpot games is that the players have to wait until the specified drawing date before they find out whether they have a winning ticket. Therefore, players are not able to win the progressive jackpot at the time and date which they purchase a ticket, and they can only win after the drawing on the specified date and time. Furthermore, another drawback with this type of progressive lottery jackpot game is that it generally requires lottery officials to monitor and determine (i.e. draw the winning numbers and monitor/verify the winning tickets) the winning players having winning tickets. Since the specified drawing date only occurs on a per time period/frequency basis, then the jackpot is limited to only rolling over when there is no winning ticket on this time period/frequency basis as well. In other words, a continuous progressive jackpot that can be won at any time that a ticket is purchased and that is monitored and tracked and initially reset again by a computer(s) does not exist. Therefore, the needs and desires exist to provide a ticket with a combination instant lottery game and progressive lottery game wherein the progressive lottery game provides a continuous progressive jackpot that can be won at any time a ticket is purchased. The needs and desires also exist to provide the capabilities of monitoring and tracking the winning ticket(s) and accordingly resetting the jackpot.
Therefore, most games of skill or chance provide players with a smaller jackpot (i.e. such as a table jackpot) as being the incentive to play those games while other games of skill or chance provide players with a larger jackpot (i.e. such as a progressive jackpot) as being the incentive to play these games. The games that presently exist provide for either one of these types of jackpot (i.e. either the game is for a smaller jackpot or for a larger jackpot). Each of these respective games provide various levels of incentive to play these games. Depending on player choice and risk decisions, a player will play one type of game over another type of game. In other words, a player faces the choice of playing for smaller jackpots if the player wants a higher chance of winning at least some jackpot amount(s). On the other hand, a player faces the choice of playing for larger jackpots if the player wants the opportunity to win a larger amount but is willing to take the high possibility risk of losing almost every time he/she plays. Therefore, the incentive levels of each of these two types of games have been separated, and when each of these games have been played, then no further play and no further incentive exists for the player. Therefore, some players opt not to play some games at all since these games are all or nothing win opportunity games and since they do not provide the additional incentives, drive, and fun for the players in order to keep their interests for continuing to play these games.
Therefore, the needs and desires exists for providing a game that provides the player with additional play and additional incentive and for providing a game that provides the player with additional opportunities to win. Therefore, the demand for a game with multiple incentives and multiple levels of game play exists. Furthermore, the demand for a game that combines the incentives for playing smaller jackpot games with the incentives for playing larger jackpot games exists. Thus, the need and desire exist for providing a game that combines the incentives for playing smaller jackpot games with the incentives for playing larger jackpot games. Furthermore, the demand exists for providing a game wherein the smaller jackpot win amounts drive the play of the larger win amount game and the larger jackpot win amounts, in turn, drive the play of the smaller win amount game. Also, the needs and desires for providing a lottery game that combines instant win games with an instant win progressive jackpot game also exists.